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Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset, PC, DL, JP (7 December 1849 – 10 October 1932) was a British Conservative politician and composer of popular music. He served as Comptroller of the Household under Benjamin Disraeli between 1874 and 1879.
Lord Henry Somerset | |
|---|---|
| Comptroller of the Household | |
| In office 2 March 1874 – 4 February 1879 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Benjamin Disraeli |
| Preceded by | Lord Otho FitzGerald |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Yarmouth |
| Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire | |
| In office 1871–1880 | |
| Preceded by | Octavius Morgan Poulett Somerset |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Courtenay Morgan John Rolls |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset 7 December 1849 Kingstown, County Dublin |
| Died | 10 October 1932 (aged 82) Florence, Italy |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Henry Somerset |
| Parent(s) | Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon |
Somerset was born at the Salt Hill Hotel, Kingstown, County Dublin,[1] the second son of Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort, by his wife Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon, daughter of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe. He was the brother of Henry Somerset, 9th Duke of Beaufort, and Lord Arthur Somerset.
Somerset was elected at a by-election in 1871 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouthshire, and held the seat until he stood down at the 1880 general election.[2][3] When the Conservatives came to power in 1874 under Benjamin Disraeli, he was sworn of the Privy Council[4] and appointed Comptroller of the Household,[5] a post he held until 1879.[6] Apart from his political career he was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Monmouthshire and a justice of the peace for Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.
Somerset married Lady Isabella Caroline Somers-Cocks,[7] the eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles Somers-Cocks, 3rd Earl Somers, on 6 February 1872. They had one child, but their marriage collapsed after a few years because of Lord Henry's infatuation with a seventeen-year-old boy and his homosexuality.[8][9]
As a result, he withdrew to Italy, while his wife was ostracised from society for having made public, contrary to the conventions of the time, why she had left him.[10] Their only child was:
- Henry Charles Somers Augustus (1874–1945), who married Lady Katherine Beauclerk, a daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans; their grandson, David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, would succeed to the dukedom of Beaufort in 1984.[11] After Lady Katherine's death, he married Brenda, dowager Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, widow of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and only daughter of Major Robert Woodhouse, of Orford House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 28 January 1932.[12] They had no issue.
Lady Henry died in March 1921. Somerset remained a widower until his death in Florence in October 1932, aged 82.[13]
Poetry and music
Somerset is the author of a book of poetry, Songs of adieu (1889), which the scholar Timothy D'Arch Smith has identified as "the first book of Uranian verse".[14] He was also a composer of several songs including A song of sleep (Ricordi, 1903). His setting to music of Christina Rossetti's Echo enjoyed considerable success when it was published by Chappell & Co. c. 1900.[13]
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